


pieces of the family ties

by helloearthlings



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Hospitals, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Violence, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 09:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13923930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloearthlings/pseuds/helloearthlings
Summary: When Merlin opened his eyes to see Uther Pendragon in all his menacing glory standing in the middle of his hospital room, he was almost certain that he must be high on painkillers, because there was no way, there was absolutely no way, that Uther Pendragon was standing in the middle of his hospital room.“You’re awake,” Uther said, his voice almost pleasant. Merlin was immediately suspicious but the feeling was more muted than he usually felt when Uther showed up unannounced in his life – or rather Arthur’s life that Merlin was intrinsically a part of. Actually, everything was rather muted and hazy, which might be because Merlin was high on painkillers.





	pieces of the family ties

**Author's Note:**

> Whoo, another thing posted. Hopefully my second half of the semester will be much less stressful and give me more time to write and less time to be exhausted.
> 
> I just want to make it clear that even though I wrote a fic where Uther was not always the worst person on earth, I still always think Uther is the worst person on earth, this was just a fun idea of mine. Don't get me wrong, he still sucks, but a little less than how I usually write him. I also got to incorporate my general headcanons of a modern Merlin and Uther relationship (lots of awkward, lots of cringing, lots of mutual hatred) which was fun. This is actually a pretty humorous fic, all in all, so I hope you guys like it!

When Merlin opened his eyes to see Uther Pendragon in all his menacing glory standing in the middle of his hospital room, he was almost certain that he must be high on painkillers, because there was no way, there was absolutely no way, that Uther Pendragon was standing in the middle of his hospital room.

“Ah,” Uther took a step closer to him, face suspiciously benign and free of the disdain Merlin usually associated with Uther’s attitude toward Merlin and also the general existence of the world outside of Uther Pendragon’s own obnoxious head.

He had on a suit – he always had a suit for every occasion, that Uther, even if the occasion is standing in the middle of Merlin’s bloody hospital room – but the tie was loose, which was a very non-Utherlike behavior.  

“You’re awake,” Uther said, his voice almost pleasant. Merlin was immediately suspicious but the feeling was more muted than he usually felt when Uther showed up unannounced in his life – or rather Arthur’s life that Merlin was intrinsically a part of. Actually, everything was rather muted and hazy, which might be because Merlin was on a lot of pain medication that would be illegal to take outside of a hospital.

Merlin hadn’t been told this by any doctors or nurses, but he was rather certain that he’s on something illegal, because bullet holes in the shoulder are generally supposed to hurt. And right now it didn’t hurt, it was just numb – hence, illegal painkillers.

“What’s up?” Merlin managed to croak out, his voice not quite sounding like it was coming from his body, scratchy with lack of use. He didn’t know how long he’d been in this hospital bed. He knew this was the third time he’d woken up since someone performed surgery on him.

The first time had been very brief; Merlin had only seen flashes of the room and he mumbled questions at a nurse but didn’t get any answers. The second time he’d been slightly more lucid but everything had been in a hazy fog. He knew he’d asked about Arthur then, where he was, if he was alright.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out after the gunshot was Arthur shaking him, Arthur yelling at someone above him, Arthur’s face stained with tears, and Merlin was moderately worried, especially when the nurse told him that no one but family would be permitted to see him until he was more stable.

And yet, somehow Uther Pendragon, the last person Merlin would’ve named as family if given the option, was standing at his bedside, a small smile on his face as he examined Merlin.

Uther and Merlin’s usual meetings consisted of awkward greetings, trying not to make eye contact, and slowly backing away from each other as fast as humanly possible.

The two of them had exactly one thing in common, and it sure as hell wasn’t the bullet hole in Merlin’s shoulder.

Uther stared down at him, presumably holding himself back from the condescending judgment at Merlin’s Americanized greeting that Merlin used specifically because Arthur once said that it annoyed Uther to no end.

“The doctors tell me you’re on your way to making a full recovery,” Uther said, voice halfway pleasant. Merlin wondered if perhaps Uther was also high on illegal pain medication, because Uther was never pleasant.

“Excellent,” Merlin swallowed, trying to wrap his head around this situation, which would have been difficult in normal circumstances but especially when he was confined to a hospital bed and hazy with lack of memory regarding the last few hours. “Glad to hear it.”

“As was I,” Uther replied, and he almost sounded like he meant it. _Very_ non-Utherlike. Uther was never glad to hear anything, especially about Merlin, and especially that Merlin was doing well. “That was a brave thing you did today.”

Merlin remembered it in bits and pieces, but he knew the most important parts. He knew that he’d been dragged along to Uther’s retirement party at Pendragon Corp. Well, mostly dragged – Arthur hadn’t wanted to go either but Uther had guilted him in to giving a speech, so Merlin had gone along as necessary moral support.

He remembered standing off to the side as Arthur gave a mostly real speech about Uther’s various accomplishments – Merlin wrote it for him, but Arthur left out all of Merlin’s clever and insulting jokes – and Merlin had been standing off to the side when he saw a woman in the audience reach into her purse, saw a flash of sleek black, and suddenly the many American crime documentaries he watched when he should’ve been doing work paid off as he tackled Arthur to the floor as the gun ricocheted.

He didn’t really remember being shot – sure, he remembered the pain, but it was all really a blur. All he really remembered was Arthur, scared and shaking Arthur, trying to get Merlin to respond to him.

“Yeah,” Merlin didn’t like remembering that at all, and chose to look at Uther’s askew tie instead of his face. That must be why he was here – to thank Merlin. For saving Arthur. One of those bullets would have hit Arthur. The first of those bullets was aimed at Arthur.

God, it could have been Arthur.

Merlin shivered.

“The shooter ran, but one of the security guards caught up with her,” Uther said as if Merlin had asked the question. “She’s been identified as Mary Collins – we prosecuted her son and he killed himself in jail. She was seeking revenge – both by interrupting my party and shooting at multiple members of the corporation, but I believe her main motivation was to kill my son to make up for her own son’s death.”

Merlin felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He wouldn’t entirely blame the woman – Mary, Mary Collins, Mary Collins who lost her son to Uther Pendragon, the man who thought of ruining other people’s lives as a personal talent – but then again, she could’ve killed Arthur. That was enough to make Merlin’s stomach churn and fuel a fierce, protective hatred that Merlin generally reserved for people like, well, Uther.

“Good to know,” Merlin finally said, since he knew Uther was waiting for his reply.

Uther’s face changed from one of benign interest to one of weariness. In that moment, he looked older than Merlin had ever seen him, and he was silent as he raked his eyes over Merlin, who probably looked terrible. Merlin wasn’t sure what people looked like after getting shot, but assumed it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

To break the silence, Merlin finally said “The nurse told me that no one but family could see me. How’d you…”

Uther’s mouth twisted into something resembling a real smile then. “Please. I would think after over five years of being in my acquaintance, you would know that red tape does not mean a thing to me.”

Merlin couldn’t help but chuckle, even though he despised rewarding anything Uther said with any modicum of praise. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

Uther’s face turned solemn again. “It raises an important point, though, and one I must address. You saved my son’s life tonight. I can never repay you for that.”

Something twisted in Merlin’s gut at the thought of what could have happened if he’d been a little less aware, a little tipsier, a little too detached. Arthur could be gone.

“Well, don’t get too sentimental on me, Uther, I wouldn’t have done it if you’d been the one standing up there,” Merlin said it like a joke, but it was pretty close to the truth. To say he never liked Uther would be an understatement. Merlin had always vaguely known the horrible affects Uther had on other people’s lives long before he ever met the man.

But it was knowing Arthur that made Merlin truly hate Uther. To see how despicably Uther treated his son, even if it was out of some twisted form of love, had never allowed Merlin to feel anything but revulsion and sometimes pity for the father whose ideals Arthur abandoned long ago and yet still desperately craved approval from that he would never receive.

Uther’s lips pressed into a thin smile. He presumably knew what Merlin thought of him. Merlin tried to keep quiet, for Arthur’s sake because Arthur loved his father in spite of it all, even if he couldn’t bear to be around him for more than a couple of hours at a time.

“Nevertheless, you saved Arthur,” Uther said emphatically, rapping his knuckles against the small table attached to Merlin’s hospital bed. “I admit to never having liked you, but I think you can admit to the same. The two of us have tolerated all of these years for Arthur’s sake.”

Merlin wouldn’t exactly use the word tolerant to describe Uther’s behavior toward him – thinly veiled disgust would be Merlin’s phrase of reference – but he’d been shot in the shoulder and wasn’t in the mood to argue over semantics.

“The one thing we have in common,” Merlin pointed out with a wry grin, and shockingly enough, Uther nodded in agreement.

“For years, I blamed Arthur’s change of behavior and lack of regard for propriety on you,” Uther said, voice clipped but not angry. “I thought you were a dreadful influence on him, one that could never be washed away. I’m not saying that I was wrong – you are still and presumably always will be a vagabond hooligan with no respect for anyone or anything – but I am saying that I accept your role in my son’s life and can no longer begrudge you for it.”

“Wow,” Merlin found it difficult to process that Uther was coming as close to an apology as Uther Pendragon could possibly come. “I…well, thank you, Uther. I still think you’re a terrible person, but thanks for saying that. I…It’ll mean a lot to Arthur. You should say it to him.”

It would mean the world to Arthur to hear his father say that, to accept a part of Arthur’s life that had always been kept separate from Uther that was entirely incompatible with Uther. Merlin sometimes felt bad for making Arthur’s relationship with his father even more strained, but he always reminded himself that without him, Arthur would only have his father to influence his decisions, and though Merlin was not self-aggrandizing, he knew he was at least a better person than Uther Pendragon if no one else.

Uther breathed quickly from his nose, which was presumably a laugh in Uther Pendragon-ese. “Perhaps I’ll start asking about you when I phone him. He may die of shock, and then all of this would be for nothing.”

Merlin very nearly laughed at that. He didn’t think Uther capable of making a joke at his own expense, but apparently he was learning a lot of things tonight.

“Since I have been so forgiving toward you today,” Uther began, and Merlin somehow knew exactly where this was heading, “and you will presumably never be forgiving toward me, answer me one question. You and my son – you are together, are you not? In the kind of way Arthur would keep hidden from me?”

Merlin just looked at him. Uther had to know that it wasn’t Merlin’s place to answer that question, that Uther would have to ask Arthur. Merlin told Arthur years and years ago that coming out to his father was his own decision, and Merlin really didn’t care whether Uther thought he was Arthur’s unfortunate choice in lover or unfortunate choice in roommate, it was all the same to him because he didn’t give a shit about Uther’s opinion of him, and as long as everyone else in their lives knew, Arthur could make that decision for himself without Merlin’s prodding or judgment.

The relationship between Arthur and his father was not something Merlin poked into often, at least not overtly. But all of Arthur’s problems, neuroses, insecurities – they all stemmed back to Uther. Merlin did his best to be the best boyfriend to Arthur he could be without blaming Uther for the ways Arthur struggled, even if it was true.

His silence apparently was answer enough, for Uther nodded at him in understanding.

“Well, if you are correct and only family has been permitted to see you in this hospital, perhaps it is a good thing that we have established our newfound family in one another,” Uther said, matter of fact as if this was just a thing that Uther Pendragon said on a regular basis. “I am certain you shall be a part of my family someday whether I approve or not, so I may as well start accepting it now.”

Uther nodded shortly at him once again and moved to leave the cramped hospital room, but before he could, Merlin impulsively called after his retreating form. “Hey, uh, Uther? If we’re family now and everything, maybe you could tell the nurses to let Arthur see me? Just a thought.”

Uther turned back, and he very nearly smiled at Merlin, before disappearing out the door.

“Not sure whether that was a yes or no,” Merlin mumbled to himself as a nurse scurried in as soon as Uther vanished. He’d probably paid them to all stay out of the room for five minutes, because that was the kind of thing Uther Pendragon did.

But then again, it seemed like Uther Pendragon was trying out new things like acceptance and tolerance and other very weird, foreign concepts that Merlin had never associated with Uther Pendragon before today.

Well, he supposed that taking a bullet for someone wasn’t something that happened every day, and was probably worth a monumental change.

It was when Arthur came into the room that the planets realigned and everything started making sense again. Arthur was still shaking as he rushed in the doorway – had he been shaking all day? Was there anyone who was sitting with him, waiting with him? – and nearly crushed Merlin’s hand as he squeezed it. Merlin even saw him hiding a few tears.

“Hey,” Merlin said, the world feeling precious and beautiful again all of a sudden. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Don’t ask me that when you’re the one who was shot,” Arthur said, voice a little grumpy, but it was clearly a cover so he wouldn’t have to start crying. Arthur hated crying, especially in public places where people could see him. “You’re so stupid, you know. Everyone keeps talking about what a brave hero you are and how lucky I was and all kinds of other bullshit when really you’re just stupid.”

Merlin reached up his hand that wasn’t attached to his injured shoulder to wipe at the tears that just started to spill from Arthur’s eyes. Couldn’t have the nurses seeing that.

“I promise I’ll never do it again,” Merlin swore, but couldn’t help from beaming widely, feeling like he could do it all over again with his other shoulder in the next five minutes if meant Arthur was here and safe and alive and with him.

“So stupid,” Arthur shook his head. He probably would’ve hit the back of Merlin’s head if Merlin wasn’t injured in a hospital bed, but that was alright, that was how Arthur expressed affection, especially where other people could see it. It was alright because that was how Merlin expressed affection too and it was their pattern, their rhythm, their constant. “Only thing stupider was the hospital not letting me see you for ten hours. I’ve been here the whole time, you know, they just kept telling me I had to be family to be let in until you were stable. Are you stable now?”

“Dunno,” Merlin shook his head. “I think your father destroyed that rule when he came in to see me.”

Arthur’s jaw nearly dropped. “I – what?”

Merlin couldn’t help but laugh just a little. If anyone had told him that yesterday, his reaction would’ve been the exact same. “I think it might all be a painkiller induced hallucination, but he was here. He thanked me. Said some nice things. Apparently we’re family now, me and him. You’re not included.”

Arthur looked too shell-shocked to laugh at Merlin’s joke, so Merlin figured he might as well just keep on going. “Oh, and do you want to get married? Because I’m pretty sure your father just gave me his blessing.”

Merlin didn’t even care that Arthur spent the next five minutes in shock over his father expressing genuine, positive emotion toward another human being, let alone Merlin, before he finally said yes. It had been that kind of day.


End file.
